Hit and Miss
by DXM Junkie
Summary: He'd hurt her one time too many. Ironic how he managed a happy ending while she was stuck in the shadows hoping for a miracle.


**Hit and Miss **

Inuyasha stood at the well for a very long time.

Moss, ferns, and tall grasses now peaked over its edges making the wood rot horribly. It was fall, and soon it would have seen the sixth winter where it was not touched or used in anyway.

Six long years since the one person Inuyasha loved disappeared through the well… Six years since he had seen Kagome Higurashi. Though he never felt age grow on him, he was sure that she was at least 24.

It had been so long since even _he_ had visited this spot. It brought many horrid memories to surface that Inuyasha wished he could bury forever, but found that impossible.

It had been over for what seemed to be forever… Naraku had been killed, Kikyo revived… Kagome had left, Sango and Miroku had moved away, and Shippo had grown up.

In a blink of an eye, Inuyasha's comfortable life had ended. The shard hunting had been completed and his fears had been realized. Kikyo had married him… but he had betrayed Kagome in the process. On the day she left, a day he would never forget even if he truly tried, she had just smiled.

Smiled so softly, and so sadly. "I love you, Inuyasha." She had told him. The words he had always wanted to hear. Knowing that he had to, he had just glared at her with a mocking look. He was still disgusted at his words. "You fucking wench, how could anyone love you?"

Shivering even in his warm clothes, now just a plain grey kimono and wooden sandals, he reminisced about how she had told him that she loved him once more, then turned and jumped down the well. She had taken the Shikon Jewel with her, but by that point he could have cared less.

He had told her it would happen though, way before even he believed it would and that fact helped to cure all guilty thoughts when he lay awake in the early morning, unable to sleep.

Kikyo was with child now, so he would have to tend to her and be a loving father to his pup. Kikyo was still cold to him, and was very wary of trust. He was afraid that one misstep on his part would break it, and she would leave him… taking his rightful pup with her. That fact made him often feel lonely and depressed, but he knew that he had no right to be. It had been his choice and Kagome's love had to be sacrificed.

He had promised to protect her and he had, after all, she had been alive when she left… but one nagging thought always plagued his mind.

He knew in his heart, that Kagome never would have hurt him as bad as he hurt her.

Kagome just would have never done that.

As the well came back to top priority over thinking, he felt his palms go sweaty.

Did he really want to do this? To leave his time and return to see Kagome, just one last time? What was he hoping for? Her forgiveness? Or did he just feel that guilty over what had happened such a long time ago. Taking a deep breath, he let his nose take in all of the scents around him. His nose told him that Kikyo was no where near; she was over by her younger sister's grave.

He never though he'd miss Kaede, but after she died life became a little harder. Shippo had stayed with him till the tyke's teenage years, when he had run off with a potential mate. He had found that Shippo was murder just three months later. Everyone who he had cared about had died or left him he found… Kagome was gone and probably hated him so fucking much, Shippo, Kaede, Sango, Miroku, and even Kirara were dead.

Sango had been ready for a child, just a week or so away, when bandits had killed her. Miroku, fueled by blood lust, had tracked them down with Kirara and murdered every single bandit. His wounds had paid the ultimate price though, and he had died from internal bleeding. Kirara had been is such grief that she too had ran aimlessly until she died from starvation.

Inuyasha felt his throat tighten as if someone was chocking him, so he took another deep breath and mustered all of the courage he could possess with such a great shame hanging on his shoulders.

With that, he jumped through the well.

::---::

The first thing that hit his senses was the cold.

Kagome's time was usually colder than his, but he felt goosebumps rise on his flesh the moment the air caressed it. Shivering, he noticed that the well house looked as if it had not been tended to in a long while. There was a smell of dry rot in the wood, and the old bones at the bottom made an unpleasant stench. Confused to this fact, Inuyasha walked to the well house door and tried to open it.

Even more confused to the fact that it seemed locked, Inuyasha easily broke the door down and stepped out into the air of mid-evening. Looking around, he felt his eyebrow's go closer to one another.

The entire shrine… it looked abandoned. The stones on the ground where cracking. Strange markings in bright color that seemed rude to him where splattered over the sacred stones and the house that was once Kagome's was boarded on the windows and seemed to be dead looking.

Staring at the house he dumbly wondered what could have happened but didn't wonder on it because he felt a leaf hit his face. Turning to the left, Inuyasha saw the God tree, just as it had been. Grass was growing up around it, thick and almost dead, and the leaves looked very dull. They were falling off, preparing for winter.

He felt his body shiver once again, reacting to the cold but he ignored it.

Knowing right away that Kagome was not living in that house anymore; Inuyasha took a few good sniffs in the air. The air smelled foul, like dirty human and smog but after sifting through the different scents, he could find a faint trace of Kagome.

Without hesitation, he flew into a tree a good hundred feet away in the general direction her scent was coming from. Flying through the air with grace it took him a good half-hour to get to where her scent seemed close.

The area seemed ugly to him. The houses where run down, and all the humans below him looked unwashed. He wondered if Kagome looked as they did, but found that he did now care. His mind was just giving him feedback on how Kagome was a little over six years ago…

Happy, untainted, beautiful, smiling, Kagome. With her heavily scent and always forgiving heart, his shrine maiden Kagome was Inuyasha's symbol of purity.

It was hard to continue those thoughts though, when everything around you smelled foul, but he tugged her smell tightly and was soon brought to a shady looking place.

There was a number on the door. It was brass and dusty looking. It barely matched the door at all; the putrid red color making Inuyasha just roll his eyes at the pure distaste of it. There was a mat under his feet that had something on it, but he could not understand. The letters were squiggly and unfamiliar to him.

Looking back up to the door he lifted his hand to knock because Kagome had always told him that was the only polite thing to do, but he hesitated. Even he, himself didn't fully understand why he was there in the first place but he way, so why not?

He wondered for the faintest moment what she would look like. Would it be the same? Or would she have some new style… He wondered if her hair had grown longer or if she had matured a little in her body… But he also felt himself questioning weather or not she had a husband or not…

His sensitive ears picked up a hint of movement from the room so he knocked on the door.

There was a rather long pause before he knocked again and received a rather horse, "Hold On." The voice didn't seem to be Kagome's. It was very rough and hard sounding as if age had come upon them early.

He waited, as told.

A few moments later Inuyasha heard some weird clicking noises as if someone was removing a large lock or several small ones. The doorknob turned and the door swung open but the girl who stared back at him was not Kagome.

She had blue eyes, much to cold to be Kagome's, and her hair, though black, had no luster or shine. She also had a lot more bruises that matched a familiar scar on her cheek. She was wearing a very revealing outfit on a tight-fitting cheap looking tank and a very shiny/greasy looking skirt. She had no shoes on, but he wasn't even looking at her feet. He was staring at her eyes.

They were widened slightly and held a bit of light and hope for one second but it was lost. "Inuyasha?" She whispered, in the same voice and she would never know how his heart would tear when she said his name.

This girl, this _hooker_, was his Kagome-Chan.

Forcing a slight smile that was so fake so anyone with eyes, he nodded and said, "Hello Kagome."

::---::

After standing there for a few moments, Kagome finally spoke again. Her eyes had gone dark and cruel, but no angry. "What do you want?" She asked, leaning against her door frame. It was then that Inuyasha noticed the deep bags under her eyes, from fatigue and lack of sleep.

"I wanted to…I…" He said, but felt himself coming with nothing. He had no real reason for being there, so he lied. "I wanted to see how you were doing."

He knew that Kagome saw straight through that lie. Her eyes narrowed.

"Come in then." She told him but looked outside the doorway, to the left, then right. She seemed nervous about something and he could smell it in her scent, but ignored it and proceeded in after her.

The inside of the room was hideous. An ugly pale green clashed with shag orange carpet. A double bed with linen sheets stained and overused linen sheets, which seemed to be the most expensive item in the entire room.

A tear rolled down his face and he felt himself stare at the large scar on her right cheek. The scar she had received when Naraku had tried to kill him and she had thrown herself in front of him.

How could he have abandoned her?

"Kagome…" He whispered with a harsh tone that cracked with emotion, only successful at getting her attention, not sympathy. He looked into her worn blue eyes with his semi-warm ember ones.

"You were happy once, weren't you? With me?"

Kagome shifted in her chair and stared down at her slut clothing in disgust. She must be terribly horrible to look at. She didn't really care as much as she used to though, and was mostly thinking about his question. Should she answer it truthfully? Or should she lie and hurt him, giving him what she believed was a way-overdue retribution.

"I was." She confirmed. "But it seems that you got the happy ending in this little fairy tale, not me."

Another tear rolled down his cheek. Kagome's eyes narrowed. He didn't deserve her sympathy. This was all his fault. "Leave." She growled, suddenly really pissed that he had even shown his ungrateful face.

"Go back to you precious Kikyo. I have a fucking 'client' to satisfie and he will be her any time soon." Kagome stood up and walked towards him. In a swift movement she grabbed the rosary off of his neck and dropped it on his lap.

"You are not bound to me at all." She hissed, turning around and stepping towards the door with the full intent of bursting out of the room.

"Kagome… I'm Sorry" His lone whisper stopped her actions. She stood in the doorway, staring at the floor without really seeing it.

"I am too." She whispered back.

"But you can't change what is already done and over with, Inuyasha. You can't go back in time without changing what the person that was meant to be."

Inuyasha stared at her back, trying to fathom what she meant.

Kagome looked back at him- one last time. He saw a flash of horrifying pain flash through in her eyes… She looked like she was dying, or already dead but holding on to the dream that was reality, the pain that wouldn't leave… How could he have let this happen?

Turning her head around, she walked out of the door.

And out of his life, this time forever.

What scared him though is that he didn't stop her.

Picking up the rosary, he threw it on the bed. Then he jumped back out the window, back up the stairs to Kagome's old home, and back down the well, to his era, where he belonged.

Kikyo was sitting on the porch, waiting for him. Her eyes were cold. They told him that she didn't really love him, but was only serving her final duty to him. He gave her a forced smile that she saw right through.

He sat next to her, sighing.

"You went back to see her, didn't you." Kikyo stated, more than asked. Inuyasha nodded.

"And what did she say?"

Kikyo's question hung in the air. Kagome's words still lingered strong in his mind but he did not want to repeat them for fear of them become even truer. He leaned his head back and stared at the sky.

"I love her Kikyo." He whispered, not looking at her. "Not you."

Kikyo simply nodded no pain over this news whatsoever. "I know."

He looked at her.

"Than what binds me to you? Why do I have to remain by your side?"

"Because you promised to always protect me. _Always._"

And so he lived the rest of his life… with Kikyo and his pup. He lived knowing that he betrayed the only one who ever truly loved him. That he lived and gave pups to a woman who didn't even find a companion in him simply a protector. Though he loved his pup dearly, he died at an older age, with a gaping hole that was filled with 500 years of pain in his hear.

Kagome also died, but much, much sooner than Inuyasha.

She committed suicide that night.

Clutching the rosary tighter and tighter as her life slipped away because of the sleeping pills and ecstasy pills.

_"I was happy… Inuyasha. But to me its all just another game of hit and miss."_


End file.
